The Indonesia Open Superseries Premier title win not only brought back Indian badminton ace Srikanth Kidambi in the winners’ circle but also ensured that he goes back to where he once belonged. The triumph which ended his 17-month title drought on the BWF circuit has pushed him back within the top 15 of the world rankings again.
The Pullela Gopichand protégé added a whopping 11,000 ranking points to his tally of 40603 thanks to his massive win which will take his total accumulated points to 51603. When the new rankings get announced on June 22, the Guntur-born shuttler will jump 11 places from his current 22nd spot to grab the 11th position.
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And in that process, he will also overtake the current India No. 1 Ajay Jayaram, who will remain static at 15th with 48565 points.
Besides this, Srikanth is also expected to shoot up to No. 2 from the 14th place in the ‘Destination Dubai Rankings’ – a yearly ranking system that determines which eight players get to fight it out at the year-end World Superseries Finals.
Back to where he once belonged
Srikanth was the top Indian men’s singles shuttler for a long time when he had one of the most productive phases of his career from the end of 2014. The continued success at the China Open in November, 2014 followed by the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold and the India Open Superseries title wins in March, 2015 guaranteed his place inside the elite brigade.
It was in August, 2015 that he achieved his best ranking till date when he climbed to No. 3.
However, his stay inside the top 5 was not for a very long time as inconsistency reared its ugly head and by April next year, he had slipped out of the top 10. Even though, the attacking badminton ace began his resurgence from the middle of 2016 when he reached the Australian Open semi-finals and the Rio Olympics quarter-finals, a stress fracture in his right ankle cut his comeback short.
It had been an arduous journey since then for the softspoken dynamite. Srikanth returned to competition after a three-month hiatus and steadily made his way back to the top echelons through his determination and quiet confidence.
At the Singapore Open in April, he squandered a one-game lead to slump to a three-game defeat to his compatriot Sai Praneeth. But at Jakarta, there was no such mistake.
Srikanth will look to continue his winning streak at the Australian Open Superseries next that begins on June 20.
